Hughes got hit because he did not have the skill to play short ball: Former Oz great Neil Harvey

Bengaluru, Dec 16: Former Australian cricketer Neil Harvey recently said in an interview that Phil Hughes, the young Australian batsman who met a tragic end after getting hit by the ball during a domestic cricket match in Sydney, didn't have a sound technique. [Phil Hughes's death: Cricket is back in its puristic form]

Eighty-six-year-old Harvey, who represented Australia between 1948 and 1963, said in the interview to Bengali daily Anandabazaar Patrika that he was surprised to hear demands to reduce the number of bouncers after Hughes was hit in the back of his head.

"Batsmanship is a skill and it needs to be earned. But instead of allowing that, they have changed the rules. How has got technique now? There are heavy bats, easy wickets, safety gear, changed no-nall rules, reduced numbers of bouncers and yet people are not content.

The problem with Hughes is that he didn't master the technique to play the short ball," Harvey said in the interview given to Anandabazaar Patrika's sports editor Gautam Bhattacharya.

A peeved Harvey said all the hue and cry over bouncers after Hughes's death made him think that it would be better that with bouncers, if the very game of cricket is also stopped.

Harvey, who was a member of the Invincibles of the 1940s, praised Virat Kohli, who captained India in the first test in Adelaide for the first time and scored centuries in both innings. He said India have a chance in either of the last two matches scheduled in Melbourne and Sydney but will eventually lose the series 1-2.

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